The success of a farming operation requires attention to certain essentials during the course of the year. For example, planting at the proper time, controlling insects and various blights as well as proper irrigation involve considerable skill. This determines to a certain degree whether or not a particular crop will warrant harvesting. However, once a crop is ready for harvest, the farmer must rely upon the performance of his harvesting equipment in order to assure that maximum production has been extracted from the field.
Typically, when harvesting is performed in extremely fertile regions of the country, for example California, the harvesting operation proceeds 24 hours a day for an extended period of time, perhaps several weeks. This truly is the most critical time in the farmer's growing cycle, since delays in harvesting can mean a lost crop, particularly because agricultural produce must be harvested within a relative small time frame.
In the tomato industry, harvesting equipment is dormant 10 months of the year. Although the equipment has been reconditioned so that it performs reliably for the entire harvest period of perhaps 2 months, the tomato crop can be lost and workers hired to attend the harvesting equipment will remain idle if repairs must be effected.
Understandably, the harvesting equipment is only as reliable as its weakest element. Heretofor this weakness has existed in the conveyor belts which perform various functions. While some belts direct the harvested fruit to sorting operations both by band and optically, other conveyors remove the debris and vines associated with the harvested tomatoes for disposal on the harvested terrain. One particular series of belts which carries vines away from the machine and allows the tomatoes to pass through the belt has heretofore been a chronic source of breaking, slipping, or stretching which tends to stop the harvesting operation until repairs can be effected. Inefficiency at this stage of the harvesting operation is extremely detrimental, since failure to efficiently harvest the fruits of one's labor directly impacts on the financial success of the farmer.
Most conveyors for harvesting equipment specifically directed to separating fruits or vegetables from a massive vine growth have heretofor relied on conventional pulley systems and belts having outwardly extending fingers which are intended to entrain the mass of vines, carrying them away for discharge onto the terrain, while tomatoes pass between spaced conveyor belts. Since these belts are driven by friction, heat generation can cause glazing on the driven surfaces reducing the coefficient of friction and the ability of the belts to be driven. Stretching, fracturing and failure to operate in synchrony with other adjacent belts result in the vines becoming entrained on a conveyor belt drive shaft causing premature belt failure and jumping of the belt off its associated drive pulley.